Intermingled Open and Closed Magnetic Field Lines near the Radial Origin of the Heliospheric Current Sheet

Abstract

On 2024 March 30, the Parker Solar Probe crossed the heliospheric current sheet at 13 solar radii while encountering two distinctly different regions at sharp boundaries on several occasions. The two regions had very different plasma densities, electric-field spectra, and magnetic-field geometries. In one region the strahl flowed only along the direction from the Sun, and there were relatively few particles at pitch angles near 90°, while in the other region the strahl flowed both toward and away from the Sun, and there were relatively many particles at pitch angles near 90°. These different properties are interpreted as being due to the spacecraft being in the heliospheric current sheet on long open magnetic field lines in the case of unidirectional strahl flow and the spacecraft being in coronal loops having much shorter closed magnetic field lines in the case with bidirectional strahl flow. The two regions intermingled on time scales less than 100 ms to create a complex magnetic field geometry. Broadband waves were observed in the open field-line regions, while narrowband electrostatic harmonic waves were observed in both regions. These harmonic frequencies correlated with the proton plasma frequency, fpp, with the lowest frequency at ∼0.1fpp. This result, plus the field-aligned electric field waves and plasma density fluctuations, requires that the observed electrostatic mode and associated harmonics were ion acoustic waves.